MetroidNG: The Stars of Aran
by The Asylum of the Devitory
Summary: Samus Aran has vanished, and the Pirates are getting increasingly active. The Chozo armor now has a new owner, and the galaxy needs a new hero...
1.

"Calling Samus Aran! Come in Samus Aran!"  
  
"Oh fuck," Samus groaned. Samus set down the kettle on the counter of her ship's kitchenette, and stepped heavily into the control deck of her spaceship. She sat in the pilot chair and picked up the small phone as she stroked her blonde hair, lined here and there with gray streaks. "This is Samus," she sighed blankly, watching the ship's autopilot cruise the galaxy.  
  
"Samus," said the panicked voice on the other end of the transmission, "Get to point 20-X-17 pronto!" The voice shrieked.  
  
"On my way," Samus groaned, hanging up the receiver. As Samus arose to put on her armor from its chamber in the ship, she suddenly moaned and rubbed her side. "Forty long years," she grumbled, "I'm getting too old for this…"  
  
-  
  
Metroid-NG: The Stars of Aran  
  
-  
  
Lana had just gotten out of SR-004's combat college two months ago. SR-004, the moon of the infamous SR-883 that housed a massive infestation of parasitic Metroids thirty nine years ago, had become the leading Galactic Alliance Soldier's training facility in the galaxy. Lana Aran took pride in the fact that her grandmother was none other than the legendary Samus Aran, the loved and feared bounty hunter, who single-handedly eradicated the entire Metroid race. Since the final Metroid incident twenty years past, the species known as Metroid was declared and proven extinct for good.  
  
Now at her home on Planet Wandaar, Lana could vividly remember that fateful Saturday in many Novembers past…  
  
-  
  
Lana, her mother an one of her mother's friends were all sitting in the living room, watching the television blare on about the mysterious disappearance of Samus Aran.  
  
"She jus' come 'round here n' tell me t' fill up her ship," said the slackjawed refuelling station attendant on the television. "I fills it and then she jus' left."  
  
"Did anything else happen?" asked the interviewer from offscreen.  
  
"I jus' told y', she come here wantin' fer a refullin', an' I gives her ship a refullin' and then she went."  
  
"Lana," Said her mother suddenly, "Would you mind fetching that old photo album from the attic?"  
  
"Sure mom!" Lana said, jumping up from her armchair in the living room, brushing her emerald green-dyed long hair.  
  
Lana trekked down the hallway of her house, and came to a stop in the middle of the corridor. Giving a string dangling from the ceiling a light tug, a trap door on the ceiling popped open, and out tumbled a crude staircase, which flopped out from the top of the trap door and slid to the floor. Lana propped the ladder into the trap door and began to climb.  
  
Inside the dusty dim attic, Lana stepped over to a small case of shelves and began inspecting the wares on one level. "Where is that stupid book?" she muttered, peering into the dust covered memorabilia.  
  
Accidentally, she let her shoulder bump into the support poles of the shelf unit, and a small heavy object smacked her on her back. Profanity passed through her lips as she rubbed her sore back. Looking around on the ground, she saw what had hit her.  
  
It was a small smooth red helmet, with two oxygen tubes lining the chin and jaws, and sported a large green visor. "The hell is this?" she muttered to herself, picking the helmet up.  
  
Just as she slid her hand into the head of the helmet, she felt something rough rub up against her fingertips. Suddenly, that rough material tumbled out of the red helmet and thunked onto the floor. Curious, Lana set the helmet on the ground beside her and knelt down to lift the small object into her hands.  
  
It was a small rectangular parcel, just a brown cardboard box tied shut with string. There was a tag on it, and Lana read it aloud.  
  
"Not to be opened until the death or disappearance of Samus Aran."  
  
Intrigued, and since the tag was valid enough for her, Lana hastily tore open the package.  
  
Inside, she found numerous computer chips and sloppily drawn diagrams, maps and other small notes, scribbled on scrap paper.  
  
Among the clutter, she found a small envelope, addressed to "Whomever finds this letter."  
  
Lana took the small envelope and ripped it open. Taking the letter out, she was somewhat surprised when the letter unfurled, fold after fold tumbled over one another, finally stretching from Lana's eye level to her waist. She began to read.  
  
"Dear whoever finds this letter," Lana murmured as she read.  
  
-  
  
I was travelling the galaxy one day, searching for the last of the Metroid race, when I happened upon a small barren planet. It was on the far reaches of the galaxy, far into the realms of uncharted territory. Upon the planet, after I eradicated every Metroid on the surface, I journeyed down an underground passage, and found a massive electricity generator.  
  
It was cylindrical in shape, and was, I'm guessing, about forty feet in height. The cavern it was in was the size of a small palace. It looked like the generator was crammed into the large cavern forcibly. I took the power output reading from the generator with my suit. However, the power from the generator was so intense, my armor blew a fuse. The reading I got from the generator was over 1,444,000 UniWatts- seventeen times the power of modern electricity generators! The style of generator this was was beyond me. It looked like nothing I had ever seen in other power generators. I realized that- should this generator ever be used for the wrong purposes, the results could be catastrophic. I was about to destroy the machine, when I found that my armor, badly damaged from the oversurge, had malfunctioned in its energy cannon.  
  
Battered and bruised, I left the planet and vowed to return to destroy the generator some day. All I could remember from that point was that I felt very tired…  
  
Suddenly, I found myself awake in a hospital bed. The nurse at the side of me said that I had fallen asleep at the helm of my ship, and had crashed onto the moon of SR-207. When I told her about the generator I had found, she laughed and said that such technology would be impossible. Feeling rather ashamed, I falsely admitted to a joke.  
  
But, as I live and breathe, I swear that generator was real. It could have just been a dream I had while sleeping on my ship, or it really did happen.  
  
I'm still not sure. If such a machine was just a figment of my fancy, it would make no matter who I thought would reach it. However, if the generator was real, if such power ever fell into the wrong hands…  
  
-  
  
Lana paused there. Then, she continued reading.  
  
-  
  
Somewhere in this attic, I have hidden my old space armor. It must be found out if that machine does exist. And, if so, if anyone has utilized its awesome power. If I was to go public with my discovery, I fear that I would have been ridiculed and be forced out of my job as a credible bounty hunter- possibly have been committed!  
  
If you, the reader of this letter, are capable of discovering my mystery planet and generator, then by all means search for it. It must be known if such a power exists.  
  
Should you decline this challenge, then let it be on your conscience that you may have let the peace and security of the galaxy crumble. However, if you do accept, then I wish you good luck.  
  
Yours,  
  
Samus Aran. 


	2. 

"You want to do WHAT?"  
  
Lana remembered her mother's reaction to when she told her she wanted to become a soldier in the Galactic Federation's Military. Lana had finally served her duty, and left the Federation to become a lone soldier after two years of service. She had just arrived at the spaceport on Waandar, and was already boarding her sleek, bright red starhopper, which she affectionately called Fireball.  
  
"Lana Aran, you are clear for lift-off," came the static-riddled voice on the other end of her radio transmitter when Lana sat down in her chair in the control deck.  
  
Lana quickly flipped a few switches and pulled a few more gears and shifts. "I'm ready to lift-off," Lana replied.  
  
"You're clear to go," said the voice on the radio.  
  
The thrusters on the Fireball ignited and let loose with a roar of flames. The black night sky on Waandar sparkled with stars as the Fireball raced into them with a flickering flash.  
  
Once in the void of outer space, Lana took a glance at the sheet of paper, which she had found in Samus' package. After taking off her shirt and putting the Fireball's onboard computer on autopilot, Lana began to study the paper more thoroughly. Lana scratched the part of her left ribs that were underneath the strap of her bra and muttered, "Grandma, you sure did have a way of getting yourself into trouble…"  
  
Lana sighed, kicked off her boots and socks and rested her feet on the dashboard of the steering deck. Lana took the package she found in Samus' old helmet and opened it up again. Stuffing the paper she held back inside the box, Lana pulled out another one and began to read.  
  
-  
  
Kraid was a gigantic monster. I'm lucky I barely managed to defeat that bloated demon. For some reason though, he and his friend Ridley somehow managed to resurrect themselves whenever I had killed them. Don't ask me how they did it! They just wouldn't stay dead! I've lost count how many times I've killed Ridley now… I think I lost it when I counted twenty or so… Or was it seventeen for Kraid…? Strangely, whenever those goons showed up, they were usually in ties with the Mother Brain (Or some other form of the pink jar-blob). I figure that somehow, the Mother Brain can resurrect itself, as well as anyone else it chooses. Of course, it's just a theory…  
  
Although I have yet to see Phantoon, Draygon and Crocomire again, I figure that Ridley and Kraid were the only two that Mother Brain decided were worth its while. Strangely, I have not seen either of the aliens for thirty years… perhaps I have finally destroyed them…?  
  
-  
  
Lana reached for a mug of coffee on the counter beside the steering helm, when a sudden violent pitch of the ship nearly threw her out of her seat. The lighting of the ship turned a dark red and sirens blared all over the ship. Lana scrambled out of her seat and raced to the small monitor on the side-helm. The words "WARNING: HULL DAMAGE" flew across the screen. "Shit!" Lana screamed to herself. Suddenly, Lana's wristwatch bleeped. Lana looked at it, "WARNING: HULL FAILURE IN 00:01:34.28."  
  
Lana raced down the small corridor of the Fireball and punched the control panel on a nearby container closet. With a whirr of churning gears, the door split open, revealing a golden suit of space armor. The red helmet and the red chest of the armor was the only part of the armor that gave it color. It was a battle suit, the old armor of Samus Aran.  
  
Lana glanced at her wristwatch. "HULL FAILURE IN 00:00:44," it read. Lana quickly pressed a small red button attached to the side of the arm cannon of the suit, and it instantly split open down the middle. Lana speedily rested her body inside the suit as the armor closed back together; encasing Lana in it's metal.  
  
Lana stepped out of the closet in her armor just as her wristwatch bleeped. Instantly a rush of air swept through the halls of the Fireball.  
  
She heard voices shouting from within the corridor, coming from the storage containers of the Fireball.  
  
Lana dashed to the storage container section of her ship, where she saw five grotesque red human-like ant creatures, each sporting large compound eyes, a large pair of mandibles, a set of antennae and two pairs of thin clear wings. Three of them were at one of the large metallic storage containers holding the container, while the other two were trying to pry the lid open with their large clawed fingers. There was a large hole in the ceiling of the hull, probably from where the insectoids came in. "Hold it right there!" Lana ordered the creatures.  
  
The human-like insects jolted at Lana's voice and spun around. "Oh shit!" one yelped, "Samus Aran!"  
  
One other insectoid turned to the first one who cried out. "You idiot! That can't be her! She's supposed to be dead!"  
  
"Missing," said a third.  
  
"Shut up!" barked the second.  
  
"What the hell are you doing in my ship?" Lana demanded, aiming her arm cannon at the gang of intruders.  
  
The largest of the bunch hastily stepped in front of the large container, which they were trying to open. "We are merely a small unit of humble space pirates," answered the insectoid. "May I ask whom you are?"  
  
"Aran. Lana Aran," Lana replied, charging her energy cannon, "Now get the hell off my ship!"  
  
"Shit! Aran! She's an Aran!" the smallest insectoid squeaked. "I'm getting' the fuck outta' here!" With that, the insectoid fluttered his wings and sped out of the hole of the hull, back into the voids of space.  
  
"What are you doing here?" Lana demanded again.  
  
"Looking for any valuables of value," replied the large insectoid casually.  
  
"Then why didn't you just ask?" Lana asked calmly.  
  
The insectoid on the larger insect's right shrugged. "Okay," he said, "can we?"  
  
Suddenly, Lana fired a blast of plasma energy from her arm cannon, which sped into the insectoid who asked her, instantly turning him to space ashes, which were promptly sucked out of the hole in the hull and into the reaches of space. The other three insectoids tried to leap behind the large steel container for cover, but only the largest one managed to save himself from two more blasts. "The only thing you're getting from me is a trip to the Reaper," said Lana.  
  
Lana walked over to the storage container, reached behind it, and pulled out the last remaining insectoid by the neck. Holding him to her helmet's visor, the insectoid began to squirm. "Don't kill me please!" he pleaded.  
  
Lana caught an idea. "What do you know about energy generators?" She asked.  
  
The insectoid blinked his large black eyes. "What kind?" he asked.  
  
"Anything that can output more than, say, one million Uniwatts."  
  
"One million!" The insectoid squealed, "Today's power generators can barely make a max of eighty-five thousand Uniwatts!"  
  
"Not according to Samus Aran," Lana said, tightening her grip on the insectoid's throat, making him wheeze and gag. "Now do you know anything?"  
  
The insectoid weakly nodded. "The pirates I work for… they're trying to build that kind of generator… real black market stuff…"  
  
Lana released the insectoid, letting him drop to the ground awkwardly with a thud. "Take me there." 


	3. 

Lana, still fully armored, poked the barrel of her cannon into the ant creature's head. "Hey, lay off, would you?" The insectoid growled, slightly pushing the barrel of the gun away from his ear.  
  
Land forcefully shoved the gun back into the insectoid's temples. "You get me to the pirate hideout, and then maybe I'll let you go. But for now, you just sit there and drive," she ordered.  
  
The insectoid grumbled and shifted his sitting position at the helm of the Fireball. "It's at least ten hours from here, you know," said the insectiod, looking over his shoulder to glimpse at Lana who was looming behind him. "Aren't we going to stop every once in awhi-"  
  
"No. Now keep driving."  
  
"Okay," the insectoid hummed, "Although I should warn you about the nasty space creature that lurks around here…"  
  
"What space creature?" Lana asked.  
  
"Oh, you know, that big orangey-globby thing that floats around these parts. Swallowed my last ship whole. It's about, I'd say, prolly fifty feet across, thrity tall, like a big blot of jelly."  
  
"Swallowed your ship whole?" Lana asked in disbelief.  
  
"Yep," said the insectoid, "My crew and I got at least fifteen million Unidollars in 'borrowed' goods on that one. The bastard blob ate it. Everything."  
  
"How'd you escape?" Lana asked, slightly releasing pressure from her cannon's barrel off the insectoid's head.  
  
The insectoid flicked an atrociously long thin tongue out of his mouth and licked his two antennae, then slid the tongue back into his mouth. "We managed to get out of the ship just before it was lost," he said, "Us Isnekts can survive in space, you know." The insectoid sighed and looked out of the view screen and into space. "That orange thing lives somewhere here."  
  
"If you think you're scaring me, you're wrong," said Lana harshly, prodding the Isnekt's head with her gun. "Why should I believe you?"  
  
"Because it's right there in front of us," the insectoid said calmly, pointing with one of his three-clawed hands out of the view screen, at a large bright mass of orange floating in the dead of space.  
  
"Move over!" Lana demanded, shoving the Isnekt out of the pilot's seat and sitting down in it.  
  
The Isnekt landed noisily on the floor, and rubbed his sore bottom. "Rude little…" he grumbled. Lana grasped the controls of the Fireball and glared out of the view screen at the advancing glob. Soon, all she could see out of the Fireball's extra-wide view screen was a mass of orange, and her onboard computer informed her on a small screen on her dashboard that the unknown object was one mile away. "Told ya'," said the Isnekt.  
  
"Oh shut up," Lana grumbled. "As soon as we get rid of this thing I'll make you repair the hole you made in my ship."  
  
With that, Lana flicked a small switch on the dashboard, and the steering control tucked into a small compartment in the dashboard, and was soon replaced with another similar dual-handstick control, except this one sported a large ominous red button on each stick.  
  
The Isnekt sighed. "Well, you have fun with the blob, I'll just be going," he hummed casually, striding off towards the hall of the Fireball.  
  
Suddenly, a wall composed of glowing energy blockaded the doorway to the hall to the cockpit, stopping the Isnekt in his tracks. "You're staying with me, bug," Lana said calmly, her eyes still locked on the orange blot with her hands on the control sticks. With a short depression of her thumbs, Lana pressed the buttons simultaneously. Instantly, a short blast of lasers shot from the nose of the Fireball, and bombarded the front of the blob. The blasts exploded in a brilliant flash, and the blob squirmed and jiggled in response. A faint roar echoed within the cockpit of the Fireball as Lana looked at the small screen on the dashboard.  
  
UNKNOWN OBJECT: 1.2 MILES  
  
The the screen flashed, and then read:  
  
UNKNOWN OBJECT: 1.4 MILES  
  
"Well, that wasn't so hard," Lana muttered, turning to the Isnekt, "Why didn't you think of that before?"  
  
"We did," the Isnekt said calmly.  
  
Just then, another roar filled the helm of the Fireball. The blob began to shake again, and the small screen on the dashboard bleeped again.  
  
UNKNOWN OBJECT: 0.9 MILES  
  
The screen flashed.  
  
UNKNOWN OBJECT: 0.5 MILES  
  
"Shit," Lana muttered. Lana held the control stick once again and rapidly pressed the laser buttons. Blast after blast of energy smashed into the blob from the nosecone of the Fireball, each which only seemed to anger the beast further. "Oh shit," Lana murmured again.  
  
The smaller screen suddenly beeped repetitively.  
  
UNKNOWN OBJECT: 0.1 MILES- COLLISION IMMINENT  
  
"Oh shit!" Lana gasped.  
  
The insectoid hummed. "Well, if you're not ready to be eaten alive by this indestructible blob, maybe we should go now?"  
  
Lana flicked another switch on her dashboard, and the force-barrier that blocked the doorway to the hall disappeared. "Let's go."  
  
Slipping through the hole in the hull, Lana and the Isnekt slid into space, and watched the orange glob engulf the Fireball. "My ship," Lana silently cringed.  
  
After the Fireball was completely smothered, the blob seemed the groan and float away to whence it came, and soon disappeared into the void of space.  
  
"Well then," said the Isnekt, "On foot, I s'pose it'll be a few months until we reach my hideout. I guess the hunt is over. Too bad," he hummed, beginning to float away.  
  
Lana hastily grabbed him by one of his clear wings, making him yelp. "You are not going anywhere besides with me," Lana growled. "There's a planet down there," she said, pointing to a nearby fleck of orage light in the void of space with the barrel of her cannon, "Now move it!"  
  
Lana tugged on the Isnekt's wing, making him yowl horrendously. "Ouch! Goddammit! That hurts!" He shrieked, "Quit it!"  
  
Lana quickly let go of the Isnekt's wing in shock. "Sorry," she murmured.  
  
"Well, don't do it again," the Isnekt grumbled, "Our race's wings are very sensitive."  
  
Lana remained in silence for a few moments, and then said, "Well, let's get to the planet. We've got a ship to buy." 


	4. 

Lana and the Isnekt touched down on the soft blue grass of the planet. "It's been a long time since I've been here on Archia," The Isnekt muttered to himself, looking around the Earth-like planet.  
  
"Archia?" Lana asked.  
  
"Yeah, a real rural planet. You've never been here?"  
  
"No," Lana said sheepishly.  
  
The Isnekt hummed. "Well, this is it. Hasn't seen a lick of industry or government since its formation. I really liked plundering this one…"  
  
The Isnekt jolted a bit when Lana flicked his wing. "Excuse me?" she asked forcefully. The Isnekt whimpered and rubbed his wing where Lana flicked it. "You seem to know this place," Lana said to the Isnekt, "find a shipyard!" she ordered.  
  
"No!" The Isnekt retorted blandly, crossing his arms.  
  
Lana grabbed the Isnekt by his throat with her free hand and held his face to her visor. "You'll do whatever I tell you to," Lana threatened, poking the barrel of her gun in the side of the Isnekt's skull, "Or I'll make you regret it."  
  
"And how are you going to do that?" The Isnekt shot back, staring into Lana's bright green visor. "Don't you want me to tell you everything about us pirates? Or would you rather kill me and spend God knows how long running around after us?"  
  
Lana paused, and then groaned as she let the Isnekt go, giving him a little push away from her. "Damn you pirates," she growled.  
  
The Isnekt dusted off his chest. "Now maybe if you could be a little nicer to me, maybe, just maybe, I'll show you where our hideout is."  
  
Lana sighed bitterly. "Alright, could you find a shipyard for me?" she growled.  
  
"What's the magic word?"  
  
"Please?"  
  
"Please what?"  
  
Lana was beginning boiling over with frustration. "Just find, a Goddamn, shipyard- please," she breathed angrily while trying to control her temper.  
  
"Okay," the Isnekt hummed, lazily flapping his wings.  
  
"And you're not going to run away from me either!" said Lana sharply, slipping behind the Isnekt and clamping down on his shoulders with her hand and cannon, "I'll be coming with you!"  
  
"With that heavy-looking thing on?" The Isnekt complained, looking at Lana's Chozo suit over his shoulder.  
  
Lana took off her helmet and tucked it under her arm, letting her emerald- green hair spill over the back of the suit.  
  
"You're a human-!" the Isnekt gasped in surprise at the sight of Lana's face.  
  
"Yeah? So?" Lana asked, letting her temper spark.  
  
"You mean, I've been pushed around by a," the Isnekt paused to shiver, "a human?"  
  
"What of it?" Lana growled, letting her arm cannon twitch.  
  
"No offense," The Isnekt burst out in shocked laughter, "but my race considers raw human a delicacy!"  
  
Lana forcefully spun the Isnekt around and jabbed her nose into the Isnekt's face. "You even think about sinking one of your teeth into me, and I'll try to take a liking to roasted bug," she snarled in a low tone.  
  
"Sheesh," the Isnekt moaned, "getting bossed around by my own dinner…"  
  
Lana spun the Isnekt around again and climbed onto his back. "Now move it!" she ordered.  
  
"Yes, princess bitch," the Isnekt muttered under his breath, buzzing his wings in the air and lifting off the ground.  
  
-  
  
The old human-like martian rubbed his stubby chin as he saw two figures touch down on the ground from the air in front of his porch. "Mornin', strang'rs," he said to them as one figure hopped off of the other's back.  
  
"We need a ship," said the one in the armored red-gold suit, brushing her green hair over her ear. The other one stroked the base of his ant-like antennae with his clawed fingers.  
  
"An Isnekt and a human, there's a pair y' don't see getting' along together well too of'n," muttered the old timer, hopping off his porch and strolling up towards the armored woman, who was at least twice his size. "What kind a' ship, miss…?"  
  
"Aran. Lana Aran," the woman replied blankly.  
  
"Aran, eh?" the old martian rubbed his chin. "Like th' Samus Aran?"  
  
"Yes, my grandmother was Samus Aran."  
  
"Been thirty years since I seen her last," the old martian mused, "An' then she just goes and vanishes."  
  
"We need a ship," Lana said again, "A spaceship."  
  
The old martian turned around and looked at his porch. Behind it was the small wooden dwelling he called home, and behind that was a large field filled with various machinery. "Well, that's what I do best," he said, "Sellin' ships." The old martian turned on his heel and walked back to his house, beckoning Lana and the Isnekt to follow.  
  
Lana and the Isnekt followed the old martian around the heaps of metal in the field. "So, a spaceship, eh?" the old martian said, "Folks from this planet come all th' way down here jus' to get off this sleepy ol' planet," he paused to chuckle, "Been makin' a killin' off it fer fifty years!"  
  
"How did you know Samus disappeared?" the Isnekt asked the martian.  
  
The martian laughed. "When big news like that a' happens, there ain't nobody that don' know about it- even on this ol' rock."  
  
"Well, can you get us a ship or not?" the Isnekt asked.  
  
"Sure can," replied the martian, "One built fer speed 'r otherwise?"  
  
"Just something that can get us off the ground," Lana replied.  
  
"Then I think you'll find it right there," said the martian, pointing his stubby finger towards a small blue spaceship.  
  
It's deep blue color reflected the light of the sky perfectly along its oval-like structure. The small and compact ship with its shaded windscreen looked like an excellent replacement for the Fireball.  
  
"How much for it?" Lana asked.  
  
"Oh, somewhere in the neighborhood of, about, oh, say, seventy thousand UniDollars."  
  
Lana and the Isnekt's hearts both skipped a beat. "Seventy… thousand…" Lana weakly murmured.  
  
"I could only dream of stealing that much in a week," the Isnekt muttered.  
  
"Don't you have anything cheaper?" Lana asked in more of a whine.  
  
"Nope," replied the old martian.  
  
"Anything?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
"Maybe we could trade you something," Lana desperately offered.  
  
"Well, I'd fancy me some genuine F-Zero machine parts…"  
  
"F-Zero!" Lana gagged, "Those races haven't been running for twenty years!"  
  
"Not since the pirates kept riggin' them races, I know," said the martian. The Isnekt quietly chuckled to himself.  
  
"Isn't there anything else?" Lana begged.  
  
"Nope," replied the martian.  
  
"Great," Lana moaned, "We're stuck here."  
  
Just then, the Isnekt placed his hands to the center of his chest. Digging his clawed fingers underneath his skin, the Isnekt pried his chest open. Lana and the martian were amazed not only to see the absense of squirting blood from the Isnekt's opened chest, but were more captivated by the small clean cavity that resided in the center of the Isnekt's chest underneath his skin. The Isnekt reached inside his chest and pulled out a handful of sparkling gems and diamonds. "Will these do?" he asked.  
  
The martian was overjoyed. Eagerly digging out a set of keys from his pocket, the martian put them into Lana's hands. "Lady, the ship's all yours!"  
  
The Isnekt folded his chest back together as he handed the jewels to the martian. Then, he and Lana walked to the ship.  
  
-  
  
"Why on Earth did you help me?" Lana asked the Isnekt from the pilot's seat of the ship as it cruised through space.  
  
"Anything to get off that planet again," the Isnekt muttered from the passenger seat of the small cockpit of the ship.  
  
The cockpit of the ship was snug enough to fit two human-sized creatures, with only two seats and a small storage area at the back of the ship, a fact Lana noted when she took a look at the ship's onboard status screen.  
  
"How'd you do that? With your chest?" Lana asked.  
  
"Us Isnekts have that little storage cavity under the plating of our exoskeleton," replied the Isnekt.  
  
"Where'd you get all those gems?" Lana asked.  
  
"You're asking a pirate?" replied the Isnekt with a rhetorical question.  
  
"Well, I suppose I should thank you," Lana said to the Isnekt, and then she paused. "Um, what's your name?"  
  
The Isnekt managed a weak laugh. "Strokanov." 


	5. 

"So, where's your hideout located at?" Lana asked Strokanov from the pilot's seat of the Blue Fireball, her name for the new ship.  
  
"We're probably too late now," replied Strokanov, "They move the base every twenty hours. They should move it in about eight hours, and it's at least nine hours from here to there."  
  
"Why are you so, cooperative?" Lana asked. "I'd have thought I'd have to threaten you again to get you to talk."  
  
Strokanov snorted a laugh. "I hate working for the pirates," he muttered.  
  
"So… why are you one then?"  
  
"I said I hated the pirates, not being one."  
  
"So why join them?"  
  
"Like the old saying: 'strength in numbers.'"  
  
Lana sighed. "What do you pirates get out of pillaging planets anyway?"  
  
"Fun!" Strokanov chuckled. "And it little bit of bounty too!"  
  
"Haven't you ever thought of doing something, say, more legit?"  
  
"Legit?"  
  
"You know, legitimate?"  
  
Strokanov paused. "Nope."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Being a good boy? No thank you. Why are you such a peace-preacher?"  
  
"Hey, I never said I was," Lana said. "Besides, with no criminal record, I'm not hounded every day by others that want my head on a stick."  
  
"Yeah, well, you get pretty rich being a pirate."  
  
"You hurt or kill other people to get rich."  
  
"Survival of the fittest."  
  
"You're a creep."  
  
"You're a wuss."  
  
Lana and Strokanov pouted and turned their faces away from each other. "Just tell me where the base is," she finally said, "Or where it's going to be."  
  
"They don't tell anyone," said Strokanov, "Not even me."  
  
"Can you take a guess?"  
  
"Hmmmm… No, I don't think so…"  
  
Suddenly, Lana felt an itching on her back underneath her armor. She tried to rub her back into the armor into the seat, but the itch prevailed. She felt musky inside her suit, and then she remembered that she left her shirt onboard the Fireball; swallowed whole by the strange orange space-blob. "Strokanov?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"Did this ship come with a shower?"  
  
Strokanov thought. "Think so," he said.  
  
"You take over," she said, getting up and rubbing her back and waking out of the control pit.  
  
"But-" Strokanov began.  
  
"Look, just fly the thing," Lana groaned, walking off.  
  
Lana took two steps from the entrance to the control pit and turned to her right, standing straight in front of a tall thin door. Opening it up, Lana stepped inside the tiled room it contained and shut the door behind her and locked it.  
  
The small square bathroom contained a sink built into a small counter with a mirror, a toilet on the right corner and a small shower stall on the left corner.  
  
Lana sighed and took off the top of her armor, letting it noisily clang to the floor. Lana opened up the pelvis armor of the suit and let it drop off her body and onto the floor beside the top of her armor. After taking apart the leg armor, Lana piled up the armor components into a small lump in the corner by the door and undid her bra and slid off her panties. Tossing one of the two towels in the bathroom onto the floor beside the shower door, Lana opened the stall and reached inside, turning the water knob on. The shower sputtered briefly and then sprung to life, and soon a cloud of steam wafted into the room and hung from the ceiling. Feeling that the water was just the right temperature for her, Lana stepped into the shower and closed the door.  
  
The sensation of warm water splashing over her body instantly relaxed Lana as she let the stream of water douse her head. Ruffling her hair in the spray, Lana felt truly calm and serene. She picked up a lather puff from the small nook within the shower and squirted a bit of bottled liquid soap onto it. Rubbing it with her hands until the lather was nice and frothy, Lana rubbed it on the itch on her back and scrubbed.  
  
After ridding herself of the troublesome itch, Lana continued to pamper the rest of her body in the same fashion, when she heard a sudden knocking at the bathroom door. "Is that you, Strokanov?" Lana called through the shower stall.  
  
"Lana?" came the muffled voice of Strokanov, "We, um, have a little problem…"  
  
"Can't you take care of it yourself?" Lana moaned.  
  
"Um, no, not really, er, you see…"  
  
"I'm sort of busy in here, Strokanov," Lana said, rather annoyed as she shut off the water flow. "What's the problem?"  
  
"You know how you left me to pilot the ship?" Strokanov weakly asked.  
  
"Yeah, so?" Lana asked in return, stepping out of the shower stall.  
  
Suddenly, the ship violently pitched, throwing Lana to the wall. The door of the bathroom burst open as well with Strokanov stumbling through it, with him pinning Lana's shoulders to the wall. Lana looked down at her bare breasts, and then shrieked. Strokanov received a swift swat to the cheek as Lana pushed him off of her.  
  
"Ow!" Strokanov yelped, falling to the floor and rubbing his face.  
  
Lana quickly grabbed a towel and wrapped it around herself. "What's wrong?" Lana asked in a panic, clutching her towel tightly to her body.  
  
"We hit an asteroid belt," Strokanov said, rolling to his side. After another sharp roll of the ship sent both of them to the floor, Lana scrambled to her feet and dashed over Strokanov and into the control pit.  
  
"Jesus Christ, can't you even fly a ship?" Lana snarled, jumping into the pilot's seat and grabbing the handlebars.  
  
Strokanov sped into the pit with her. "You expected me to fly this ship, with human-modded control sticks and with these hands!" he snarled back, waving his large three-fingered clawed hands in front of him.  
  
"Shit! Couldn't you have done anything else-?" Lana roared back, steering the ship to a sharp right.  
  
"No, considering I can't read a damn thing other than Isnekt writing!"  
  
Another violent jolt of the ship from a colliding asteroid pitched Strokanov to the wall. "Why didn't you tell me?" Lana screamed back at him.  
  
"I tried to!" Strokanov yelled back at her, just as another asteroid hit the ship, throwing it to its left.  
  
Lana only growled in defeat. "Just sit down and let me drive," she growled.  
  
"Like you're supposed to," Strokanov growled back.  
  
"Will you shut up?" Lana fired back at him, taking a wild pitch to the right.  
  
Then, the ship was calm. "Don't you ever tell me to shut up," Strokanov snarled at Lana.  
  
"Don't you ever- burst in on me like that!" Lana roared back at him.  
  
"Hey, I didn't choose to do that!" Strokanov shot back, "You're not even my species!"  
  
"You pervert!" Lana yelled.  
  
"You- you-! Bitch!" Strokanov screamed back at her.  
  
Lana roared. She stormed out of the control pit and stomped back to the bathroom. When she returned, she wore the cannon portion of her armor on her arm and aimed it at Strokanov. "You call me that one more time, or if you do that to me ever again, I swear to God I'll blow your head right off your fucking shoulders!"  
  
Strokanov sprung out of his seat and tore open his chest and quickly took a small laser pistol from his chest cavity. "Don't you point that at me!" Strokanov snarled, aiming the pistol barrel at Lana.  
  
"Then you point that away from me!"  
  
"You first!"  
  
"You!"  
  
"You!"  
  
Silent minutes passed between them with their weapons aimed at one another. Finally, Strokanov said, "Well if you're so pissed off about it, then for God sakes, put on some clothes!"  
  
Lana growled and let her arm cannon down. "Fuck you," she snarled to herself, turning back to the bathroom and slamming the door shut. When she came out again, she was in her normal clothes, except with the absence of her shirt, having to do with just her bra. Strokanov stored his gun back inside his chest and closed it shut. He and Lana resumed their seats and Lana took the controls of the Blue Fireball. "I'm sorry," she bitterly muttered.  
  
"I'm sorry too I s'pose," Strokanov grumbled. 


	6. 

The landing on Tallon One was so bumpy that even Strokanov's sure-footing was shaken. "Nice piloting," Strokanov muttered after he noticed that his forehead had come within inches of smashing upon the wall from the jolt.  
  
"Well, I didn't go flying this ship into an asteroid belt," Lana shot back.  
  
Strokanov rolled his eyes. "Are we really going to argue about this again?"  
  
Lana muttered. "Nevermind."  
  
Lana stood up from the pilot's seat and picked up her helmet from the floor. "Where are you going?" Strokanov asked as Lana walked by him to the opening of the cockpit.  
  
"To find Chozo statues," Lana said.  
  
Strokanov snorted a skeptical laugh. "Just so you know," he said, "Samus didn't find any on Tallon Four."  
  
Lana quickly turned her head to Strokanov. "How do you know?"  
  
"I'm a pirate, remember?"  
  
Lana muttered as she slid her helmet onto her head. "Well, since you don't know how to use this ship," she said, "over there is a radar console, there's it's controls, and there's the radio," said said, pointing to various parts of the dashboard.  
  
Strokanov blinked, glanced at the various switched and buttons, and then glanced back at Lana, who had already stepped into the hallway. "Why are you telling me this?"  
  
Instantly, Lana jabbed her thumb into a panel on the wall, and immediately a barrier of clear blue energy spread itself inside the opening to the cockpit, sealing Strokanov inside the cockpit. "You're going to help me find them," Lana said firmly.  
  
"You don't like to be pleasant, do you?" Strokanov muttered.  
  
"Only I know the override password for the barrier," said Lana, "And it's in a different Earth-language. So you can't hack it." Just as Strokanov opened his mandibles to speak, Lana cut him off. "And if you even think of trying to fly away without me, don't. This ship won't start without the keys," she said, patting her armored hip with the barrel of her cannon. "So if you want to get out, you help me."  
  
"Can't you just ask me nicely?" Strokanov asked. When he recieved a glare from behind Lana's visor, he said, "What is it with you humans and being in control?"  
  
"Shut up and wait for me to contact you," Lana said, opening the hatch to the outside world.  
  
When Lana disappeared onto the surface of Tallon One and the hatch sealed behind her, Strokanov sighed as he plopped himself down in the pilot's seat. "Bitch..."  
  
******  
  
The field that she landed on was ripe with bluish-green grass as far as the eye could see. The sun of Tallon One filled the sky with an oddly faint warmth, making Lana shiver whenever she thought about it. Stepping a few paces towards a deep valley faraway in the distance, Lana tapped on the side of her helmet with her finger. "Strokanov?" she asked.  
  
"Yeah, what do you want?" Came the grumpy voice of the Isnekt inside her ears.  
  
"There's a valley not far from where I am. Any life signs in there?"  
  
"Depends," Strokanov hummed from the other side of the transmission. "You never told me how to read this stupid radar screen."  
  
Lana roared in frustration. "Shit!" She screamed. "Are you as fucking useless as you look?"  
  
"Well, pardon me, miss dinner," Strokanov snarled back, "When I grew up I never knew I'd be kept hostage by my entree and be forced to read its language."  
  
"You speak English perfectly," Lana muttered.  
  
"Speak, yes," Strokanov said, "Read, no."  
  
"Oh, for the love of Christ," Lana moaned. "And I suppose I'm going to have to teach you how to read?"  
  
Lana heard Strokanov hum on the other end of the radio. "I'm a fast learner."  
  
Lana sighed heavily. Picking off her helmet and sitting down on a nearby rock, Lana took out the radio component of her helmet and attached it to her ear. "For starters," she said, "a little dot called a period comes at the end of every sentence..."  
  
****  
  
After a maze of hours of education, Strokanov was one language more literate. "There, that's it," said Lana, putting her helmet back on.  
  
"Thank you," Strokanov said, trying his best to sound grateful.  
  
"Now, that valley," Lana said. "Are there life signs?"  
  
"Yes," Strokanov said, "But knowing how much the Chozo used bio-technology, I'd say looking for life signs is useless."  
  
Lana hummed to herself. "Is there anything else in there?"  
  
A long hum came from Strokanov. "Just life signs," he said.  
  
"I'm setting the radar to pick up objects around my location, Lana said, tapping on the side of her helmet. "It'll reduce the range, but it'll pick up more stuff."  
  
"Whatever you want," Strokanov muttered.  
  
Lana ignored Strokanov as she walked to the edge of the valley. Looking around the planet's surface as she walked, Lana willed the scanning mode of her visor to activate. Immediately, a digital magnifying lens stuck to the middle of her visor, letting her examine anything of interest that fell under the scrutiny of the lens to astonishing detail. From fronds, mushrooms, and even trees, small captions popped up onto Lana's visor, describing anything the scan visor looked upon at Lana's whim. Knowing the many stories her mother told her about Samus' adventures, Lana thought that, if there was Chozo technology on Tallon One, then her Chozo suit would readily accept any upgrades. Even thinking of all the imaginable abilities Lana's suit could harbor made Lana quake with anticipation. She wondered how long it would be until she could find some missiles...  
  
Soon, Lana came to the cliff overlooking the wide and long canyon. "Anything?" Lana asked Strokanov.  
  
"Same," Strokanov muttered in disappointment. "What do you see down there?"  
  
Lana peered into the canyon with her scan visor. "There's a totem pole-like structure straight in front of me," she said. "A life sign?"  
  
"Yes, that would be it," Strokanov asked.  
  
"Are there any more life signs?"  
  
"Nope."  
  
Lana took a deep breath before she dropped into the center of the valley. Where she would have surely broken both legs if she landed from such a fall, her armor braced and broke her fall with hardly any trouble. Now looking at the large statue, dwarfing her by three times her size, Lana scanned the totem.  
  
"So what is that thing?" Strokanov asked.  
  
"It's Chozo-made all right," Lana replied. "It's made of a Brickstine compound. Strokanov, I programmed an element database on the ship's computer. What's it say about Brickstine?"  
  
"Just a sec," Strokanov said, leaving the connection silent for a minute. "It's highly combustible, and has a light mass."  
  
Lana aimed her arm cannon at eye level at the totem, and let a blast of energy smash into the totem. The statue did not even so much as squeak.  
  
"Brickstine, was it?" Lana asked.  
  
"Brickstine."  
  
Lana bit her lip as she glared at the totem. Her mother's stories of Samus always involved Samus solving incredibly complex puzzles to get upgrades. Lana began to wonder if this totem was just one of them. Looking around the valley some more, Lana found a large, purple mound lodged into teh floor of the valley. Scanning it, Lana found that it was composed of pure Argonium. "Strokanov, look up Argonium," Lana ordered.  
  
"Found it," Strokanov said almost immediately. "It's a natural energy-absorbing substance- very unstable, too."  
  
Lana pointed her cannon at the purple heap. "Anything else?" Lana asked.  
  
"It's largely found underground, running along in veins," he said. "The source is a large lump of a purple rock-like formation underground, sticking up onto the surface."  
  
As soon as Lana fired a blast at the purple boulder, it detonated in a brilliant flash. Lana lay on the ground, dazed and shaken a few minutes later. Her visor was scrambled with electrical interference, and what she thought was the sound of garbled energy surges at first was Strokanov's voice when she recovered her senses. "Lana! Are you okay? What happened?"  
  
Lana shook off her dizziness and got back to her feet as her visor cleared. "It's unstable alright," she muttered.  
  
Suddenly, Strokanov said, "Lana, the life sign is gone, but I'm reading intense energy levels."  
  
Lana looked over her shoulder to see the totem, once standing high and proudly above her was now lying in shambles, with a glowing blue ball floating inches above the ground at its former station. Curious, Lana walked over to the orb, and when she was within an arm's reach of the blue ball, her scan visor activated. And when the scan caption read, "Morph Ball," Lana nearly squealed with joy.  
  
"Lana, what is that?" Strokanov asked as Lana reached out and grabbed the orb.  
  
Suddenly, Lana felt her armor become alarmingly dense. In a sudden jolt, the armor collapsed into a tiny ball, leaving Lana fearing that she had been crushed. Suddenly able to breathe again once she calmed down, Lana became aware of Strokanov's persistant voice in her head. "Lana? Lana! What happened? I'm not picking you up on the radar anywhere!"  
  
Ignoring Strokanov, Lana thought of moving. At the instant she thought about it, she felt her curled body suddenly tumble over, rolling steadily. Her travel was rudley cut short when she rammed into something. She could not see anything at all, much less where she was going. As Strokanov began to lose hope of grabbing her attention, Lana wondered how Samus was able to use the Morph Ball. Trying her best to recall her surroundings, Lana managed to maneuver around the rubble of the totem for a minute until she collided with something else. When she wanted to unfurl back into her normal form, Lana stretched out her arms, wherever they were, and in a fast yet fluid pop, she immediately found herself standing beside a large chunk of debris with her arms outstretched.  
  
"Lana?" Strokanov's attempts to contact her suddenly registered in her mind again.  
  
"Yeah?" Lana asked, exhilerated with her new ability.  
  
"Lana! What happened? You just... vanished!"  
  
"Vanished?" Lana murmured. "What do you mean?"  
  
"You just vanished right off of the radar!"  
  
Lana grinned. She quickly curled back up into her Morph Ball, and Strokanov began his frantic calls again. "Lana? Lana?"  
  
Popping back out of the ball, Lana tried her best to restrain a cruel, knowing giggle from Strokanov. "Lana, it happened again," Strokanov's confused voice said.  
  
"Hey Strokanov," Lana asked, "What do you pirates know about the Morph Ball?"  
  
"Morph Ball?" Strokanov's voice suddenly shivered. "We tried to duplicate it after we saw Samus use it a few decades back. The first, last, and only test group were crushed." Lana could hear a tone of bitter resentent in Strokanov's voice. "Why?"  
  
"Because I just found it," Lana said. "When I morph, I must be cloaked from radar."  
  
Lana could hear Strokanov in bewilderment. "Well, that makes sense. Tell me, Lana, are you having fun playing games with me?"  
  
"Maybe," Lana hummed.  
  
"Yes, well, now that you've found the new toy that you were looking for," Strokanov said, "can you come back to the ship so we can go?"  
  
Lana snorted. "No. I've got more stuff to find."  
  
Lana grinned when she heard Strokanov groan in frustration. 


End file.
